THE ARMY WORM IN NEW HAMPSHIRE IN 1770 



"In the summer of 1770 this whole section was visited by an 

 extraordinary calamity, such a one as the country never expe- 

 rienced before or since. It was an army of worms which 

 extended from Lancaster, N. H., to Northfield in Massachu- 

 setts. They began to appear the latter part of July, 1770, 

 and continued their ravages until September. The inhabitants 

 denominated them the " Northern Army," as they seemed to 

 advance from the north or northwest and to pass east and 

 south. The}^ were altogetlier too innumerable for multitude. 

 Dr. Bouton of Thetford, Vt. , told me that he had seen whole 

 pastures so covered that he could not put down his finger on a 

 single spot without placing it upon a worm. He said he had 

 seen more than ten bushels in a heap. They were unlike any- 

 thing which the present generation have ever seen ! There 

 was a stripe upon the back like black velvet, on either side a 

 stripe from end to end. and the rest of the body was brown. 

 They appeared to be in great haste, except when they 

 halted to devour their food. They filled the houses of the 

 inhabitants and entered their kneading troughs, as did the frogs 

 in Egypt. They would go up the side of a house and over it 

 in such a compact column that nothing of the boards or shin- 

 gles could be seen. They did not take hold of tlie pumpkin 

 vine, pease, potatoes or flax ; but wheat and corn disappeared 

 before them as if by magic. They would climb up stalks of 

 wheat, eat off the stalk just below the head, and almost as soon 

 as the head had fallen upon the ground it was devoured." — 

 The Reverend Grant Poxvers^ Historical Sketches of the Coos 

 Country^ Haverhill^ N. H.^ 1841. 



